The Wall of Girls
4. Kali

Visions of Kali

Kali Mati Murti Puja
Sacred Hindu image
Lurid with significance
Incomprehensible jumble
Of surreal symbols shuffles
To my Western eyes
Flitting randomly

Kali four blue arms
Third eye & bindi
Long poking tongue
Beads & necklaces strung
From the faces of dead men
Skirts of their limbs.
All her decapitated lovers.

Kali chthonic radiance.
The clammy ascetic air
Of the grave
Breathed out at sunrise.
At her feet flowers feed
On spilled blood & flesh
Flowing & clotting, both.

Sharp trident pierces the sky.
Glowing sunrise morning aura
And against the dark of
Her shimmering black hair,
The reborn and growing
Crescent moon is
Tucked behind her ear.

Kali Chandra crescent moon
Her foot hard down
On Shiva’s naked chest.
He be-cobra-ed ecstatic
Crescent moon waning
And Shri Kali moon waxing
Is premenstrual I think.

Jean Dark
2010